1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor processing and, more particularly, to a system and storage medium for tracking quartzware utilization in vertical furnaces.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Vertical furnaces are used in semiconductor fabrication for forming a variety of thin films. The vertical furnaces may be used for thermal growth of oxides or for chemical vapor deposition of oxides, nitrides, and polysilicon. An example of a vertical furnace is the Alpha-8S manufactured by Tokyo Electron Limited of Tokyo, Japan. Vertical furnaces typically contain a large quantity of quartzware that must be cleaned and/or replaced on a regular basis. Failure to properly maintain the quartzware can result in the production of defective integrated circuits that result in increased manufacturing costs.
A single semiconductor fabrication facility typically may have twenty or more vertical furnaces. Each furnace may have more than seven different quartzware pieces. Additionally several spare pieces of each type of quartzware piece for each vertical furnace may be kept on site to ensure that an adequate supply of quartzware is always available. Each piece of quartzware may be new, clean, dirty, or no longer useable. It is critical to always have a complete set of replacement quartzware ready to go into every vertical furnace. If a vertical furnace starts producing defective integrated circuits, a typical solution is to replace the quartzware. If replacement quartzware is not available, the vertical furnace will not be available for manufacturing thereby increasing manufacturing costs. Additionally, during routine maintenance replacement quartzware needs to be on hand to replace any quartzware found to be defective or dirty. Also, after a certain amount of use, some pieces of quartzware are designed to be discarded.
Often the quartzware at a fabrication facility is not tracked with enough detail. For example, the method for tracking may not be easy to use resulting in not all personnel recording quartzware usage. Also all information about quartzware utilization is not always kept at a single location. Personnel may be required to dig through the inventory of quartzware in an attempt to determine if a certain type of quartzware is available or needs to be ordered from the manufacturer. If the correct type of quartzware cannot be found, valuable manufacturing time may be wasted. Additionally, personnel may have to dig through old notes to determine which quartzware needs to be removed from a vertical furnace. A piece of quartzware that needs to be removed may possibly be forgotten resulting in the failure of that quartzware and the possible production of an increased quantity of defective integrated circuits.
A specific piece of quartzware may result in an increased quantity of defective integrated circuits being produced due to, for example, an unnoticed defect. It may be difficult for personnel to dig through records in an attempt to correlate quartzware being used versus incident of production of defective integrated circuits to identify offending piece of quartzware.
It is therefore desired to develop a system for tracking the utilization of all quartzware used in all vertical furnaces. Such a system is preferably easy to use so that all personnel will record quartzware utilization information and maintains information about quartzware utilization at a single location. It is also desired that the system be able to indicate which pieces of quartzware need to be replaced during regularly scheduled maintenance. It is further desired to be able to easily view a history of each piece of quartzware.
The problems outlined above are in large part addressed by a system for tracking quartzware utilization in vertical furnaces. The system allows each piece of quartzware to be tracked. All relevant information about each piece of quartzware is kept in a single location allowing information about any specific piece of quartzware to be easily checked, however, the information can be accessed from a plurality of locations of which some of the locations are preferably near the point of use of the quartzware. Additionally, the system is easy to use so that personnel will be more likely to use the system. Information about each piece of quartzware can be viewed and modified from any computer system near vertical furnaces in which the quartzware is used. Such a system advantageously allows personnel to enter updated information about the quartzware on a timely basis thereby ensuring that all information about the quartzware is kept up to date.
A system including a computer server and a plurality of computer systems is contemplated herein. The computer server maintains a database of quartzware inventory data and furnace data. The quartzware inventory data includes all relevant information about each piece of quartzware including a history of each piece of quartzware. The furnace data includes information about the part numbers of each piece of quartzware used for each vertical furnace. Program instructions are also maintained on the computer server. This program allows personnel to access and modify information in the database from the plurality of computer systems. The computer systems are preferably located at a variety of sites including near the vertical furnaces in which the quartzware is used. Additionally, during servicing of a vertical furnace the program also displays each of the quartzware pieces that need to be changed. The program may also be able to calculate statistical information relating to quartzware usage. Additionally, the system may also be connected to an automated factory system. The program may allow the computer to connect to the automated factory system to determine a number of process cycles performed by a given vertical furnace.
A computer-readable storage medium is also contemplated herein. The storage medium contains program instructions that can be implemented by an execution unit such that quartzware utilization is tracked. The instructions allow data about each piece of quartzware to be viewed and modified. The instructions also determine the quartzware needed to be changed during maintenance of a vertical furnace. The instructions may also calculate statistical information relating to quartzware utilization. The storage medium additionally contains quartzware inventory data and furnace data.